Restaurant Style Paneer Butter Masala

Here’s an easy recipe for the perfect restaurant style paneer butter masala for all you paneer (cottage cheese) lovers! I love serving this with parathas and jeera rice. It’s always a hit with family and guests!

This restaurant style paneer butter masala is definitely one of my favourite recipes forever, and it is one of my most viewed recipes on the blog. I decided to give the pictures and the post a facelift so that we can have the most amazing paneer butter masala for as long as we want!

So here’s the thing with paneer butter masala. If you are a paneer lover, it is the king of all paneer recipes.

Creamy, slightly tart and makes me mop up the gravy with anything I can get my hands on. Just the thing you need when you are craving comfort food but want something that hits all the right notes.

This is completely against the healthy binge I’ve been on. But paneer butter masala has it’s own place. With some naan of course. Or tandoori roti. Or lachha paratha. Or bread. Whatever works. Or whatever’s on hand.

Because this is what I want after too many salads, or too much chicken or too much ghar ka khana and there’s nothing like it. You get that right?

This one’s a no brainer. It’s not a super long process and if you have some of my makhani gravy on hand, all you need to do is heat up some butter, let the gravy bubble up and add paneer. Done.

Just in case you are wondering, paneer butter masala is also known as paneer makhani. They are made in a tomato based gravy and use oodles of butter and cream which gives the gravy a smooth, creamy texture.

If you are a paneer lover, here are some questions you will have. I know. And thats why I am here to answer them 🙂

How do you make paneer (cottage cheese) at home?

Making paneer at home is simple and needs only two ingredients – milk and acid (lemon juice or vinegar work well). You will need to heat milk and add the acid and simmer the milk till it curdles and separates into whey and paneer or cottage cheese. I have a super handy, step by step tutorial on how to make paneer here.

Coming back to my extra favourite paneer butter masala. You can always go to the whole hog and make your own paneer at home (which only takes 15 minutes BTW and is the most satisfying experience) or you can buy store bought paneer. This recipe is so versatile that if you would rather have chicken butter masala instead, you can always substitute the paneer for chicken. Works both ways!

Doesn’t that melting butter just take your heart away? And say gimme gimme.

Restaurant Style Paneer Butter Masala

Description

Here’s an easy recipe for the perfect restaurant style paneer butter masala for all you paneer (cottage cheese) lovers! I love serving this with parathas and jeera rice. It’s always a hit with family and guests!

Cover and cook till the tomatoes start breaking down and the mixture starts leaving oil at the edges. Switch off the flame and set aside to cool.

Once cool enough to handle, fish out as many whole spices as possible, and blend the mixture to a smooth paste.

In the same pan or kadhai, heat the remaining butter and add the blended paste prepared in step #4. Add garam masala powder, chili powder, turmeric, ketchup, salt along with 1/2 cup water. Bring this to a boil.

Once the curry comes to a boil, simmer and cook for 30 minutes, till the oil separates slightly. Cut the paneer into bite sized pieces, add it to the gravy and mix gently.

In another pan, dry roast the kasuri methi and grind it to a fine powder. Mix kasuri methi and fresh cream in the curry and switch off the flame.

Hey Rucha! The sourness can be a result of the tomatoes you use. Sometimes a batch can be extra sour and that can affect the taste. You’ll have to use ripe Roma tomatoes and also adjust a little sugar to take care of the sourness.

Yes absolutely. Omitting the chillies will affect the colour and the gravy will be paler looking, but shouldn’t affect the taste. You can also substitute the chillies and the powder for something milder like paprika.

In the point 5. you say “… heat the remaining butter and add the curry paste.” but in the ingredients part you don’t mention the curry paste. Do you mean by that all the spices you add, which is “garam masala powder, chili powder, turmeric, ketchup, salt”?

Hey Richa😊
Thank you so much for this delicious recipe! I tried it today and I also used your recipe on how to make paneer. I was so shocked at how simple it was! Thank you so much! My husband loved it!

I made a few quirks considering many ingredients were missing in my kitchen…yet it turned out to be simply superb😀… Just wondering, as I put the mixture to simmer at the lowest possible flame, there was a lot of spurting of the curry, any way to reduce that?

Thanks for the recipe.
I have one question though; why we have to discard whole spices from curry paste mixture and later add garam masala separately? Can’t we keep those whole spices and skip garam masala?

This was a really awesome recipe. I have tried to make swedish indian recipes before, but most of them miss that little extra. Shall I use yellow or red onion? And can I use grounded kasuri methi without roasting it? (Is fenugreek the same thing) Thanks again for this!

Thanks Susanne! I recommend red onions but yellow will work too. Ground kasuri methi without roasting it is fine too. Kasuri methi is just dried fenugreek leaves so yes, they are essentially the same thing.

Hi Richa, thanks for sharing such a wonderful recipe. I’m a big Paneer lover just like you and paneer butter masala holds a special place in my heart and stomach😄. You added tomato ketchup in the recipe, I really liked that. I haven’t tried it but I’m going to try it out. It’s definitely going to add a tangy punch in the recipe. Again thanks for sharing.

Would you please clarify Step 4? “Once cool enough to handle, fish out as many whole spices as possible, and blend the mixture to a smooth paste.” Do you mean blend the whole spices to a paste, or discard the whole spices and blend the remaining mixture to a paste?

Hey Donna, I’m sorry thats not clear in the recipe. I mean that you should discard the whole spices and then blend it to a paste. Alternatively, you can also tie up the spices in a muslin cloth (like I’ve shown in the video) and discard them and then blend everything together.

Hey Supriya, you can but I’m not a big fan of adding curd instead of cream. The curd might split because of the tomatoes, and will make this recipe really tart. If you don’t want to add cream, increase the cashews by a tablespoon or two to get the same creaminess.

I wasn’t able to quite reproduce the bland-yet-tasty flavour of panneer butter masala for a long time…this recipe is just perfect…! Everyone loved it so much and I finally got a site to follow for North Indian recipes, yayyy…surfing pasta recipes too..will comment after trying that out 🙂

Paneer is one of my favorite dishes and Thank you so much Richa for this fabulous recipe…I loved it so much….Such a great ful one…
I have all my support with u sis..😊
Keep rocking…..and waiting for your next crackers❤ …

I wanted to cook Paneer yesterday hence I was searching for a recipe and came across your easy and simple recipe. I tried it and my Dad said that it tasted like it was brought from the restaurant. I brought some today for lunch and my office colleague also got confused and thought that it was brought from the restaurant.

Dear Rciha,
I tried the Paneer Butter masala yesterday and it was yummy! the recipe was so simple , special focus on how easy you’ve explained it to us.
Got a thumbs up from family !
Thanks again Richa.

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Meet Richa

I’m Richa, the cook, writer and photographer behind this little blog. I’ve grown up in the kitchen along side my mum and grandmothers and conversations in my family are always about the next meal. I’ve picked up their love for food along the way, and with this blog, I share my food story with you. I live in Bangalore, India with my husband Denver, who looks after the tech behind the blog, and happily samples everything you see on it! Read More…

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About My Food Story

I’m Richa, the cook, writer and photographer behind this little blog. I’ve grown up in the kitchen along side my mum and grandmothers and conversations in my family are always about the next meal. I’ve picked up their love for food along the way, and with this blog, I share my food story with you.